Years ago, filmmakers shot vast quantities of film footage and then edited it into final form by physical cutting and splicing clips (sequences of frames) together in a labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive process. Today, however, computers have dramatically changed the process of film editing because nonlinear editing (NLE) applications represent the clips in digital form and allow the clips to be virtually cut and spliced together. These applications are called nonlinear because no physical tape or film is involved in the editing process, so the user may jump immediately to the desired clip without physically rewinding or fast-forwarding tape or film.
Nonlinear editing applications often represent clips via a clip view, a timeline view, or both a clip view and a timeline view. The clip view represents each clip with a an icon called a slide, which contains the first frame of the clip, and all the slides have the same size. The clip view is generally used to re-arrange the order of the clips, to delete clips, and to insert clips. In contrast, the timeline view represents each clip with an icon called a band, which contains the first frame of each respective clip, and the bands have sizes proportional to the time of the clip when played. The timeline view is generally used to lay down audio, to synchronize the audio with the video, and to work with the clips based on their length.
A problem occurs when switching between the clip view and the timeline view in that the switch is visually jarring and disorienting, and the users lose their place within the clips. Although this problem has been described in the context of a clip view and a timeline view, the problem also occurs when switching between views of any type of data.